P4.5B class suit gets new judge

CEBU, Philippines — A new judge has been assigned to handle the P4.5 billion class suit filed by at least 39 residents of Naga City, Cebu against the city government, Cebu Province, Apo Cement Corporation, its subsidiary Apo Land and Quarry Corporation, and Environmental Management Bureau-7 following a massive landslide in September that killed at least 77 people.

The case was raffled off to Regional Trial Court Branch 23 Judge Generosa Labra in Cebu City.

The Office of the Clerk of Court of the RTC in Cebu City confirmed that the records of the case were already transmitted from Naga City. The transmittal order was signed by Executive Judge Jacinto Fajardo Jr.

The case was earlier assigned to RTC Judge Dennis Larrobis. He, however, inhibited himself from the case after the lawyer of Apo Land and Quarry Corporation sought for it. According to ALQC, Larrobis is a fraternity brother of lawyer Benjamin Cabrido, lead counsel for the petitioners.

Larrobis and Cabrido graduated from the same law school and are both members of Lex Cervus Fraternity. To avoid any controversy, Larrobis recused himself from the case.

He explained that while his membership in a college fraternity does not constitute a ground to disqualify him from acting on the case, he chose to inhibit to free his court of the slightest suspicion of bias and prejudice, and to preserve the parties’ faith in the proceedings of the case.

Residents of Sitios Tagaytay and Sindulan in Barangay Tinaan, Naga City, where a killer landslide hit on September 20, 2018 killing at least 77 people, blamed the government’s alleged negligence and the quarry operations of ALQC of the incident. (FREEMAN)